


Picnic date

by mugspensive



Series: Last days in Shadebourne [2]
Category: Life of the Party D&D (Web Series)
Genre: First Date, Fluff, M/M, Softness part 2 electric boogaloo, Wings, bullying Vanden on main, non-sexual nudity, that's all it is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:27:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25529665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mugspensive/pseuds/mugspensive
Summary: Cassian and Vanden go out on a nice picnic date but actually there's no picnic.
Relationships: Renard | Vanden du Argentfort/Cassian Thiarin
Series: Last days in Shadebourne [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1814818
Comments: 8
Kudos: 34





	Picnic date

**Author's Note:**

> Finally got around to finishing the sequel (this time not in the middle of the night), this was supposed to be shorter than the first one but apparently I don't know how to limit myself.

Cassian had been concentrating hard on his work, the coat he was altering, when a sudden knock on his door startled him. He didn’t have time to answer before Elyse barged into his room with excitement.

“We’re going out, to the forest I mean, to get out of the city,” she said quickly, still standing in the doorway.

Cassian looked at her and shrugged. “Have fun, don’t get eaten by a bear.”

“Of course not, just thought maybe you’d want to join,” Elyse explained, “no worries if you don’t want to though, Vanden is staying here as well. He said something about needing to make plans.”

“Sounds like him,” Cassian said with a smile that was barely there, “I’m just working on the clothes and I think it would be best if I finished them soon. Is everyone else going?”

“Yeah we’re all going, the other three wanted to go into the wilderness and I suppose so do I.”

“Sounds nice,” Cassian replied as he set down the coat he was altering, “could you just tell Vanden that I’m staying too? Wouldn’t want to scare him when he thinks he’s alone.”

“Will do! Have fun...working?” Elyse said happily but looking a bit confused at the last part of her sentence before leaving and shutting the door behind her.

Cassian went back to working on the coat and after about 15 minutes heard the carriage leave and the gate to the barracks shut with a loud bang. He was in comfortable silence. He kept on working for the better part of an hour and then got up, stretched and left his room. He looked over at the stables and saw that the others had only taken one horse. Cassian looked satisfied and made his way to the kitchen without being spotted by Vanden. He started making sandwiches. After having made four, and making sure they were at least a little bit edible, he wrapped them up and put them in his bag along with some fruit, mostly apples and pears but some peaches found their way into his bag as well. Cassian went back into his room and placed his bag on his bed. After making sure he and his hair looked presentable, he went to find Vanden. Cassian knocked on Vanden’s door. The reply came immediately.

“You can come in, Cassian.”

He opened the door to find Vanden sitting at his table, a huge pile of parchment in front of him. Cassian noticed that the room was lit only by one very bright candle.

“What are you planning this time?” Cassian asked while still hovering in the doorway.

Vanden replied without looking up. “Just plans for Frostguard, can’t just go wandering without a plan.”

“Maybe you should take a break,” Cassian offered while clasping and unclasping his hands and continued before Vanden could protest, “I was just planning to go and swim and I was wondering if maybe you wanted to come with.”

“Then you should have gone with the others, they went to the forest I think,” Vanden said, finally looking at Cassian.

“Not to be rude to the others but I wanted a nice calm swim. The others can be… a bit much at times so I wanted some quiet alone time,” Cassian explained.

Vanden’s eyebrows furrowed a bit. “You wanted some alone time, and you’re asking me to join?”

“I guess I am,” said Cassian with a smile.

A few seconds passed before Vanden reacted. “Oh.”

“So do you want to join?”

“Yeah. I should probably take a break.”

“Great! Whenever you’re ready then, but we do have to share the horse since the others didn’t take a self driving carriage,” Cassian said, “I have to grab my bag as well.”

“Me too, see you by the horse in a little bit?” Vanden asked, starting to look excited.

“See you then,” Cassian replied before heading back to his room.

He took his bag and headed down to the horse. He opened the gate and lead the horse out. He stood waiting for a few minutes before Vanden emerged, wearing a cleaner shirt and carrying his bag. He shut the gate behind him and locked it.

“Right, I think it’s best if you are the one actually riding the horse,” Cassian said, not wanting to admit he was bad at riding a horse.

“For some reason I agree,” Vanden jokingly said and got on the horse. Once on he reached out his hand, “You want any help?”

“No,” Cassian replied grumpily as he took Vanden’s hand and got on the horse. He looked at his hands for a moment, clearly contemplating something.

Vanden turned to look at the man behind him and spoke up. “You do know that you’re gonna have to hold on, right?”

“Yeah, I know,” Cassian said and put his arms around Vanden’s waist.

They took off, riding through the city and out of the main gate. As they left the city Cassian rested his chin on Vanden’s shoulder. Vanden took a brief glance at him before smiling and moving his eyes back onto the road. They rode on like that for a while before Cassian motioned to Vanden to turn off the road before tightening his hold. They rode through the sparse trees for a little bit before coming to a clearing next to a river. They got off the horse and Vanden tied it to a tree.

“Nice place, isn’t it? Sariel and I found it a few days ago and I wanted to come back for a swim before we left for Frostguard.”

Vanden silently nodded in agreement, taking in the calmness around him. There was no sign of anyone else and all that could be heard was the sound of the running water and some birds chirping. Cassian walked a little bit closer to the river before dropping his bag on the ground and taking off his boots and rolling up his pants before going to the river. He stood in the river, water up to his ankles, happy that the water wasn’t too cold. Cassian walked back to his bag before proceeding to remove his clothes. Vanden had also removed his boots and rolled up his pants and was standing in the shallow water, his back turned to Cassian. After removing all of his clothes and arranging them in a neat pile Cassian walked towards the river. At the sound of him returning Vanden turned around and then quickly turned away again as he saw a very naked Cassian. His face went pretty pink. Cassian just chuckled at that. When he was waist deep in water he turned to Vanden.

“Come on, it’s pretty warm,” he said before submerging himself for a brief moment and then emerging a few meters away.

Vanden grimaced before walking over to a fallen tree. After deciding it was stable enough to sit on he climbed onto it and sat down with only his feet touching the water. He just sat there, enjoying having the sun on his face for the first time in a while as Cassian swam and felt content in the water. They spent almost 15 minutes silently enjoying life in their respective places before Cassian got out and sauntered over to the other man.

Vanden took a look at him and went just a shade pinker. “At least put on a towel.”

Cassian sighed and walked over to his bag, put on a towel and walked back.

“Better now?” he said before sitting down next to Vanden and looking at him attentively.

“Much.”

“There is...something I would like to ask you,” Cassian stated as he cocked his head to one side.

Vanden gave him a odd look and turned to face him. “Ask away.”

“I was wondering what I should say, how much should I lie, if someone were to ask me about you,” seeing the worry in Vanden’s eyes he quickly added, “don’t worry, no one has asked, yet. It’s just that they know that I do care about you and I don’t know how much you are okay with sharing.”

“I was hoping they wouldn’t ask but I guess I can’t really rely on that,” Vanden admitted, “just...don’t mention the kissing and feelings?”

“I wouldn’t dare.”

Vanden stared at Cassian for a moment before talking again. “Why did you ask? If no one has asked yet?”

Cassian thought to himself for a moment before answering. “I didn’t tell you this morning because I didn’t think it would be wise but I don’t want to keep things like this from you,” seeing Vanden’s face grow worried he continued, “nothing bad, just last night when you were sleeping in my bed, Sariel came to find me. She had a nightmare and I guess wanted some comfort. She didn’t ask or comment so I didn’t tell her anything. I wasn’t sure what you wanted them to know.”

Vanden took it all in and nodded. “So that’s why you asked if I had woken up during the night.”

“Yeah.”

“Is she okay?” Vanden asked.

“From what I understand, yes,” Cassian assured him.

They sat for a little bit, the silence around them only filled with the sound of the river rushing past.

Vanden spoke up first. “For someone who doesn’t like being vulnerable you do open up quite a lot.”

Cassian let out a small chuckle. “Tell me about it. I hate it.”

“Before we move on from being open, I would also like to bring something up,” Vanden said and moved closer to Cassian, facing him.

“I’m not going to stop you.”

“Once I told you that you don’t deserve to be traveling with us,” said Vanden carefully, as if testing the waters.

Cassian nodded. “I remember that.”

“And I wanted to apologize because I was wrong,” Vanden admitted and scooted even closer to Cassian staring into his eyes, “you are one of the strongest, most amazing, most insufferable people I have ever met.”

Cassian smiled cockily. “I knew all that but please, do go on.”

Vanden shook his head slightly and spoke up quietly, with a smile on his lips. “Shut up.”

Cassian only raised his eyebrows in response.

Vanden cupped his cheeks with both of his hands before talking again. “No matter what you think, you are a good person, you deserve to be here just as much as any of us, you are incredible and deserving.”

“Don’t forget devilishly handsome and annoying,” Cassian joked.

Vanden just shook his head again before softly kissing Cassian. Cassian kissed him back right away. Vanden was still cupping his cheeks. Cassian moved his arms around Vanden’s waist and pulled him closer until their bodies were pressed together impossibly close. Vanden moved his hands to play with Cassian’s still wet hair. Cassian realised that he was still wet from swimming and that he was probably soaking Vanden’s shirt, but in this moment he really couldn’t be bothered to do anything about it. They were not unstable on the tree, but they also weren’t stable so eventually Vanden pulled away after wobbling a bit. Both of them were smiling.

“Shouldn’t have done this on a fallen tree,” he said as he put his hands on the tree to stabilize himself.

“Probably not,” Cassian said and reached his hand to his hair to fix the mess that been made of it by swimming and Vanden.

“Don’t,” Vanden said and grabbed Cassian’s wrist, “it looks good.”

“...sure.”

Vanden let go of Cassian’s arm and looking down realized that his shirt was now very wet. “Oh come on.”

“Sorry about that,” Cassian apologized before going on, “you can just leave it in the sun. I’m sure it will dry up soon enough.”

“That’s actually a good idea,” Vanden remarked before standing up and going onto soil.

He walked until he was in the middle of the small clearing, unbuttoned his shirt, took it off and laid it in the warm sunlight. At the same time Cassian walked over to his bag and fumbled around trying to find something. As he found what he was looking for he turned around and saw Vanden. Cassian didn’t even attempt to hide the fact that he was ogling.

Vanden stared him straight in the eye and sighed. “Next time you want to see me shirtless, just ask.”

“Maybe I will,” with that Cassian took a shirt out of his bag and walked over to Vanden. He held the shirt out to him. “It’s the shirt I finished making this morning, you can have it if you want to.”

“Thanks. Do you always have special shirts in your bag?” Vanden said with a smile as he took the shirt.

“Only when I’m going swimming with handsome princes.”

Vanden let out a laugh. “Does that happen a lot?”

“Not as often as one would think,” Cassian answered and sat down, still looking intently at Vanden.

Vanden looked down at the shirt in his hands and then sat down opposite Cassian, placing the shirt on the ground.

“Are you seriously gonna ruin a brand new shirt without even putting it on?” Cassian asked with fake offense and shook his head, “the disrespect of some people.”

“Should I put it in the river then? Just to wash it?” Vanden teased, going along with the joke but lifting the shirt up from the ground and putting it onto his legs.

Despite understanding the joke Cassian’s eyes narrowed. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Probably not.”

“So what are we gonna do, just sit and look at each other until one of us looks away?” Cassian asked after a few moments of silence.

Vanden shrugged and grinned. “We could always talk about our feelings.”

“Somehow I don’t think that will be that fun,” Cassian’s eyes lit up as he got an idea, “we could just do what we came here to do and swim.”

Vanden finally let his gaze stop as he sighed. “You already swam.”

“You could hardly call that a swim, besides you didn’t,” Cassian said while giving Vanden an inquisitive look.

“I don’t really like deep water, even though this isn’t the sea,” Vanden explained and shook his head while letting out a sharp laugh, “we said no talking about our feelings didn’t we.”

“I’d hope you know that I’m not gonna force you to go into water, but it isn’t that deep and I’ll be there. Nothing’s gonna hurt you, Vanden,” Cassian said, stood up and held out a hand to Vanden, “you don’t have to if you don’t want to, but I’m going.”

Vanden considered the hand for a moment before grabbing it. Cassian pulled him up and didn’t let go of his hand.

“I’m gonna need my hand back so i can change out of my clothes, unless you have spare pants and shoes for me,” Vanden joked, “which I highly doubt you do.”

Cassian smiled softly and let go of the hand. “You’re right, I didn’t think that far ahead.”

While Vanden was taking off his clothes and putting them neatly onto his bag along with the new shirt, Cassian just threw the towel on the ground and walked back into the river. When Vanden had taken care of his clothes and gotten to the river all that he could see of Cassian was the top of his hair and a pair of amber eyes staring up at him.

Vanden let out a soft laugh. “You look like a frog.”

“I doubt frogs are this handsome,” Cassian replied after raising his head above water.

Vanden just shook his head again and walked into the water tentatively. The water was pleasantly warm from the sun that had been heating it all morning. Vanden dipped his head under the water and as he emerged his hair was in his eyes. Cassian slicked the hair back and, looking satisfied with his contribution, submerged himself. Vanden could see him through the clear water swimming towards the center of the river, breathing underwater like a fish would. Vanden decided to be safe and not risk drowning and stayed in shallower water. He tried swimming but after miserably failing just let himself float for a while. After emerging Cassian did the same thing before swimming the short distance over to Vanden and floating next to him. He moved his open palm towards Vanden. Vanden instinctively grabbed it and they just drifted on the water together for a while, both of them feeling a calm they hadn’t in a while. Cassian was lost in thought and when he finally got out of his own head he saw Vanden yawn.

“Falling asleep in a river might not be the smartest idea, you know,” Cassian said while squeezing Vanden’s hand.

Vanden yawned again before answering. “For once I think you might actually be right.”

Now was Cassian’s turn to shake his head as he started paddling towards the shore, pulling Vanden with him. Vanden only let go once they reached the shore. Cassian put on his towel and feeling the wetness of the towel grimaced. Vanden on the other hand took out his dry towel and dried himself before putting most of his clothes back on. He was still lacking a shirt. Cassian quickly stole Vanden’s towel and dried himself before also putting his clothes on. He decided he had swam enough for one day.

As Cassian handed Vanden his towel back he spoke up. “You know, while the shirt does look nice, I made that for wearing not just looking.”

“Just wondering whether or not I should try it with wings. I mean right now.”

“I don’t see why not,” Cassian answered, “no one around to gawk at you.”

Vanden chuckled. “Other than you, you mean.”

Cassian only rolled his eyes in response. Vanden examined the shirt before putting it on and buttoning it up. He looked at Cassian as if asking for permission. Cassian just nodded. Vanden breathed out and slowly pushed his wings out. The sunny day got even brighter as holy light shined from Vanden and his eyes and freckles glowed again, as they had just a few days ago. In his now much shorter hair, white streaks appeared again. As Cassian’s eyes properly worked again after being momentarily blinded by bright light, he saw Vanden in all his winged glory. Cassian’s eyes widened as he just speechlessly stared.

Eventually Vanden broke the silence. “Well? Does the shirt work?”

Cassian moved behind Vanden, ducking under one of his wings on his way there. As he inspected the shirt around the bases of the wings, nothing seemed broken. Cassian felt a surge of pride swell in his chest.

“Yeah, didn’t even tear a little bit.”

Cassian didn’t move. He stayed there, between the wings, admiring both his own handiwork and Vanden. 

Not having hear from Cassian for a few moments Vanden spoke up. “You okay back there?”

“More than okay,” Cassian answered after shaking himself out of his thoughts, “this will sound weird but can I...touch them?”

“I mean they are physical objects, Cassian,” Vanden remarked before realizing what the other man had meant, “I mean, sure, why not.”

Cassian lifted his hand and gently placed it onto the base of one of Vanden’s wings. He placed his other hand on Vanden’s waist. It felt soft under his fingers. He moved his hand onto the actual feathers and let his hand roam the fully outstretched wing. He touched the feathers lightly at first, not daring to risk the chance of accidentally hurting him. 

After a moment of silence Vanden spoke up. “I’m not that fragile, I thought you’d know by now.”

“Oh, I know,” Cassian said as he quite forcefully pressed his thumb into Vanden’s wing.

Vanden’s breath hitched for a second before he replied. “Alright, that’s on me.”

Cassian softly ran his hand over the spot he had just pressed with his thumb. “Want me to kiss it better?”

“Well,” Vanden said as a blush crept onto his face, “you don’t have to.”

“What if I wanted to?” Cassian asked as he brought his other hand to caress Vanden’s other wing.

“I wouldn’t be opposed to it.”

Cassian removed both his hands from Vanden’s wings before placing the lightest kiss onto where his right hand had just been. Not hearing a response he ruffled Vanden’s hair before ducking under a wing again and facing Vanden. He just looked at Cassian with glowing eyes before giving him a quick kiss.

After pulling away Vanden shuffled his wings. “You want to go flying with me?”

Cassian took a hard look at Vanden’s wings and then his arms. “Maybe I won’t force you to drown and you don’t force me to fall out of the sky?”

“You think I’m that weak?” Vanden asked with mock offense, “besides, you barely weigh anything.”

“I’d rather not find out.”

“Fair enough,” Vanden said before taking off flying.

He didn’t fly high, just barely above the water of the river, and then going higher and flying above the trees before landing again. Vanden’s smile was brighter than the sun.

Cassian smiled back. “Had enough showing off for one day, bird boy?”

“Hey! You’d show off too if you could fly.”

“Yeah, I would,” Cassian admitted, “you okay with heading back? I actually do need to keep working on the coats.”

Vanden started to let his wings burn away, they vanished almost instantaneously. “Sure, I’m actually starting to get hungry as well.”

“Fuck!” Cassian exclaimed, seeming angry with himself, “I have sandwiches! I can’t believe I forgot I had them.”

With that Cassian stepped over to his bag and pulled out four sandwiches, which didn’t look the best but also didn’t look bad. He put three of them on his bag, then picked up the last one and held it up in Vanden’s direction.

“Sandwich?”

Vanden eyes the sandwich offered to him for a moment. “I can’t see why not.”

They stood in silence for the next five or so minutes as they ate their sandwiches. They were actually pretty good, even Cassian himself seemed to be surprised by how good they tasted.

“I thought you didn’t know how to cook?”

Cassian shrugged. “I don’t.”

“Well, this wasn’t too shabby for a first date,” Vanden said after picking up his bag, “you ready to head back?”

“Let’s go then,” Cassian said as he picked up his bag with a smile and started heading towards the horse.


End file.
